Hee Hee Hee!
I have been DYING to blog this and now that I have a machine again (Thanks to Scott, whom I will be paying in Boeuf Bourgignon and cream puffs. Yes, I pay my IT guy in food, just as I pay my tax guy in Scotch) I can!
So I was taking the Emery Barnes car back to its spot, because it had to have some graffiti removed. Lo, a Zipcar was in the spot, so I called the office.
David asked if I wanted to have it towed.
“I…Yes. Yes, I do.”
So I got the Zipcar towed. And it felt damn good.
Some Stuff | Liz September 26, 2008
By Phantom Scribbler, September 27, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
Sorry, unrelated comment here. I just got a certain box from a certain group of (very funny) miscreants, and wanted to thank you for your participation therein.
Seriously. Made my day. Many thanks.
By Phantom Scribbler, September 27, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Sorry, unrelated comment here. I just got a certain box from a certain group of (very funny) miscreants, and I wanted to thank you for your participation therein.
Seriously. Made my day. Many thanks.
By Beth, September 27, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
Looks like it’s a bad spot to park a car if two of them have been painted while there. Bet if felt good to have the competition towed, eh?
BTW, glad you have your ‘puter back and lucky Scott. What can I do for you to earn Boeuf Bourginon and cream puffs?
By Liz, September 27, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
For you, Beth, just show up. 🙂
By Liz, September 28, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Hey, Phantom. Glad you enjoyed the box. We had a good time making it!
By Morgan, October 5, 2008 @ 10:00 am
There’s a great little passage on emulsifications in Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques. If you aren’t familiar with Pepin, he’s the guy that Julia Childs thought REALLY knew French cooking. He’s very oldschool: it took me 14 hours to do brown stock according to his recipe. Anyway, here it is:
This is somewhat confusing as on the one hand boiling may be necessary to get some sauces into emulsion while on the other hand sauces lit hollandaise or beurre blanc separate if they’re brought near the boil. The explanation for this paradox lies in the proportions of fat to liquid. If a small quantity of butter is mixed and boiled with a large quantity of liquid, the butter will most likely separate and rise to the surface of the liquid. If the proportion of butter and liquid are more or less equal, a strong boil will bind the ingredients together and make a creamy sauce that will hold together for some time depending on the temperature. If there’s a lot more butter than liquid (as there is in beurre blanc [JMH: and hollandaise]) too much heat will make the mixture separate. This is an important point to grasp because when understood it allows you to bind liquids into fat or to separate fat from liquid at will. For example, in the roast chicken in aspic [JMH: I love most French cuisine, but just can’t get behind the aspic!], the natural juices are boiled down to evaporate the moisture and reduce the mixture to solidified juices and clear fat. As the moisture boils off, the proportion of fat becomes greater and this is why it breaks down and separates from the from the solidified juice. Once the fat is separated, it can be easily poured off and the solidified juices dissolved with water, then strained and reduced to the proper consistency. To reverse the process, let’s say that you don’t want to remove the fat from your natural juices but the mixture has over-reduced and already separate. If you want to bind the liquid and the fat back together again, you just replace some of the evaporated moisture (water), bring to a strong boil and it will bind together again. In the case of a beurre blanc or hollandaise which, again, is almost all fat, if the sauce starts to separate, remove from the head, add a bit of cold water and beat with a whisk to bind together again.
Nice, eh?